When We Stop Breathing
by Alien Emerald
Summary: His eyes couldn’t hold hers. Her eyes couldn’t catch his. She holds her breath, and waits for one of them to finally watch her drop dead. She can’t decide anymore. RonHermione and HermioneDraco Oneshot.


**When We Stop Breathing**

**His eyes couldn't hold hers. Her eyes couldn't catch his. She holds her breath, and waits for one of them to finally watch her drop dead. She can't decide anymore. RonHermione and HermioneDraco.**

**XX**

He wasn't watching her. He wasn't even _glancing. _There wasn't a single ounce of recognition in his face…no smirk, no smile, no laugh. It was like she wasn't there. It was like she hadn't been there all month.

"Hermione?" said Ron, who was currently sitting next to her in the Great Hall. "What are you staring at?"

He looked to where her eyes where directed, and she quickly made herself look mad and upset. Glancing twice at her, then at Malfoy, he growled. Like he always did.

"What did he do to you today?" he asked. She bit her lip.

"Nothing…," she began, but could tell he wasn't buying it. "He was just…um…pushing me around."

He cracked his knuckles under the table and she smiled. He smiled back, very glad to finally have her full attention.

She laughed. She could read him like a book. And she _loved _books.

XX

Only an hour later, coming out of Ancient Runes, she finally fell into the deepest pit of annoying obsession. He was there, right there, outside her class, leaning on a banister and smiling evilly at her. She smiled back.

But then he wasn't looking at her. Janet Camry was walking just behind her, also smiling at the same boy Hermione was currently ready to snog. How unfair was it, that only every girl but her could get his attention? There had been a time, the time of her life, when they had been tangled so scrupulously it was a wonder they never became enmeshed in their own skin. Now…it was this.

Tears began to pool. It wasn't fair that he was the only one for her, when she knew it wasn't right, when she knew it went against everything she knew and cared about. Maybe that was just it…the thrill of it. It wasn't right, maybe, but it was fun. And her heart sang every time he touched her. No one, _not one, _could do that to her.

XX

"Hermione?" said the voice again. A warm hand pressed against her cheek, and she found herself falling into it. So warm, so perfect…. She wanted to stay there forever.

"Let her rest, Ron," said Harry's voice from behind her. She suddenly felt cold. Pulling away, feeling tension clump and climb higher, she opened her eyes to find Ron closer than he should have been.

For a fleeting second, he didn't pull away. For a single second, she felt like pulling him into her and onto her lips. But the second passed like it had came: fleetingly, and with no residue left on her mind.

"Ron…." Excuses. Excuses, more excuses. She was running out. "I have to study."

He looked confused, but settled for her excuse. Before she was able to divert her eyes away, he searched them for something…. The truth, she suspected, but it was never that simple. He didn't want her thoughts and skin; he just wanted Hermione.

She didn't know that yet.

XX

"Hermione?"

"EEP!" she screamed, dropping all of her books and parchment. Her heart accelerated, her breathing hitched and then stopped, and he pressed his lips against hers. All was lost.

He pulled away before she had a chance to respond. It was always that way; no one could know. At times, she wondered if even she was allowed to know what they had.

"We can't be together," he said.

And that was that. Her tears would not stop coming after that, and no words, no skin, no touch could ever stop her from feeling the pain of breathing.

XX

"Hermione…," said Ron, and for the millionth time, he placed a comforting hand on her back to try and sooth her. "Please, can you at least tell me what's wrong?"

"I—I c—can't, Ron!" she said again. She could never tell him the truth, because if she did she knew she would be lying to herself.

She looked up at him at the exact moment he chose to dive. His lips came, soft and warm, on hers, and she found that unconscious feeling begin to take over. She pulled him closer, wrapping a hand in his hair as he wrapped his around her waist. For once she could finally kiss someone without being tormented or restricted. She could finally feel what she had wanted to feel for so long now.

Then the moment was gone, and tears came like rushing bullets. She ran upstairs and flung herself onto her bed, and cried on her pillow until she forgot what she was sad about.

She closed her eyes, knowing that none of this was right and it never would be.

So she stopped breathing.

XX

**No, Hermione did not commit suicide. She just let everything forget itself.**

**I just became a little bit interested in Draco and Hermione. I usually hate anything other than canon, but this couple seemed to have a magnetic pull on me….**

**Please review! I have more HP on my profile, so check them out!**

**-Alien**


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